Get well soon

My dad had another round of brain surgery yesterday. Since flowers didn't seem right, we sent him a Craftsman baseball cap and some new tools as a get well gift. I picked some pink sweet peas from my garden as a get well bouquet but since he lives about 3,000 miles away they are going to stay on my table and I can think about him every time I admire them. Get well soon Daddy!

You may start singing now I don't mind

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. For the first time ever, I was not looking forward to a birthday. I love birthdays, especially when their mine, but the thought of turning 29 made me taste some vomit in the back of my mouth. I began making all sorts of concessions to avoid the fact that the day was approaching. I told Thomas not to get me a card, I didn't care if he got me a gift, I just wanted to go out to dinner. But as the day crept up on me I slowly got more and more excited. A gift from my parents arrived, cards came in the mail.

I was surfing around the net one afternoon and came across Dooce's style post about a fabulous Angela Adams handbag. Not only was the bag so cool but it was also on sale! I quietly sent an email to my beloved saying, "If you really haven't picked anything for me yet, I might like one of these..." A few days passed and Thomas grumbled something about not supporting my "ridiculous habits."

And then, voila! A new handbag, just for me!

I love it. I quickly swapped everything into it and then proceeded to carry it around on my shoulder while still wearing my bathrobe. Ridiculous? I think not!

A simple home office idea

Emily sent over this fabulous idea for a workspace in my home office. I love how it has book storage, cutting space and a computer area all rolled into one.

The unfortunate fact is we only have a three bedroom house and all rooms are already allocated as one for sleeping, one as an office for Thomas and one as a studio for me. The "studio for me" must also double as a "bedroom for guests," an idea I tried to adjust by suggesting the pull-out sofa moves to Thomas' office, thus leaving me space to have this work island. Sadly even guests have balked at the idea of catching shuteye in his room, insisting my things "are just prettier to look at" (a kind way of saying, "No way am I sleeping in that computer salvage yard!").

Thomas' solution? Pave the front yard, turn the offices into a second two car garage and build a second story that would have a studio, office space and a spare bedroom.

My solution? Don't marry an engineer.

Interior decorating has never been a big hobby of mine

On paper I need things to be organized. I need my lists to be straight, my letters to be evenly spaced and my lines to be horizontal. I have similar stipulations for my kitchen cabinets and drawers. Plates must go back to the same place they originated from, spoons perfectly stacked, glasses all in a row. My bedroom closet is no different; shirts are stacked by color, skirts are hung from short to long.

But the same rules do not apply to the rest of my house. We like our home to be clean but we share a unique and keen ability to live in adversity among the many piles of life. We will scale mile-high clothes mountains before doing the laundry. We can cook dinner in one square inch if necessary, which it often is.

We're tidy-challenged and we always have been much to the chagrin of our respective families. One infamous time Thomas's Aunt Penni, over from England for a family visit, set her unwavering sights on his room. On his way out for the day Thomas knowingly and specifically instructed her, "Whatever you do, DO NOT CLEAN MY ROOM." Needless to say that is the first thing Penni did, but she made sure to photograph it before she started.

When things are organized I am calmer and happier, but finding the perfect home for things is hard for me. Where do I start? What if it takes too long? Where can I put things so their functional? All these questions swirl around and around in my head, I get stressed out and then nothing gets put away. I do though have a desperate need to break the cycle. The room I spend all day in really needs some attention. In a huge way...

The room has to be multi-functional. I knit, I sew, I paint, I have books, magazines and drawing paper. Now to top it all off I use the room everyday as a home office/design studio. Add in a computer, portfolio and office supplies. Oh, and did I mention this room also doubles as our guest bedroom? Help! My goal is to have it clean by Thursday as a birthday gift to myself. Do you have any pointers, besides renting a dumpster?

No other place would make sense

Somewhere in between the one thousand "last minute changes" I have to do today, I decided to fit in laundry. Laundry, not because I thought it would be fun, but because the jeans I've worn 5-6 times are starting to stink. My Dad once told me that he used to wear his jeans until he could smell them, then he'd wear them a couple more days. I on the other hand decided to wash mine once they became offensive. So with 5 giant piles of sorted laundry on the floor, where else was Lola to nap for the day? On the clean laundry of course.